President says 'I don't want to meddle' before urging the Bulls, but adds that best choice could still be Cleveland.
Chasing down rumors about LeBron James' basketball future could be a full-time job. Every day we'll compile a list of the rumors we're hearing about James and his next contract. Just remember these are just rumors, not necessarily facts.
It's going to be a long and rough ride, Cavs fans. Buckle up.
If his suggestion wasn't quite as pointed as during a campaign speech, President Obama still made it clear who he thought would be a good acquisition for his former hometown team in Chicago.• This is what you would call a mismatch. President Obama on Sunday again said Chicago would be a wonderful place for LeBron James to live and play basketball.
So, if the most powerful politician in the country is lobbying for Chicago, who can Cleveland call on for support? So far, all we have is Governor Strickland in that embarrassing/ignominious/ridicule-inducing video begging James to stay in Northeast Ohio.
Anyway, here's what the president said while being interviewed on TNT.
"You know, like I said, I don't want to meddle," Obama said. "I will say this: [Derrick] Rose, Joakim Noah it's a pretty good core. You know, you could see LeBron fitting in pretty well there."
Obama was interviewed about a number of basketball subjects by broadcaster Marv Albert on the White House basketball court. The interview will be shown Tuesday night at 8 p.m.
"I think that the most important thing for LeBron right now is actually to find a structure where he's got a coach that he respects and is working hard with teammates who care about him and if that's in Cleveland, then he should stay in Cleveland," Obama said. "If he doesn't feel like he can get it there, then someplace else."
• Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that Jay-Z could have a major influence on James' decision.
Berman talked to Sonny Vaccaro, the Adidas sneaker king who has known James since James was in ninth grade.
Vaccaro said Jay-Z's influence may even trump that of his top inner circle of childhood friend/business manager, Maverick Carter, noted confidant William Wesley and agent Leon Rose.
Vaccaro says that bodes well for the Nets and Knicks. Jay-Z has a 1.5 percent piece of the Nets, but also is an occasional celebrity-row occupant at the Garden, with his wife Beyonce.
"I don't think the Nets would be involved without Jay-Z," Vaccaro told The Post. "LeBron and Jay-Z is something that is inseparable and you almost have to include that in the equation. I think he will be consulted. It's a very good relationship."
One NBA source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person didn't want to offend James' inner circle, told The Post: "If you ask me who the most important person in this is besides blood, I'd say Jay-Z. That helps the Nets, but Jay-Z will understand it as a friend if he doesn't come. But I think [Jay-Z] helps the Knicks a lot more than Chicago."
According to a Jay-Z spokesperson, the rapper is touring Europe much of June and July but assured he and James communicate regularly. Jay-Z's public wooing of James before July 1 could be construed as tampering by NBA Commissioner David Stern.
Jay-Z first met James when he was in high school. Their shindig at All-Star Weekend -- "The Two King Dinner and Afterparty" -- has become a fixture for four years. In Dallas last February, it was attended by a series of Fortune 500 executives, Nets President Rod Thorn, Chris Paul and Jason Kidd, among celebs.
• The Charlotte Observer, the hometown paper for Michael Jordan's Bobcats, seems to have a good sense where the LeBron speculation is headed.
NBA writer Rick Bonnell writes: "NASCAR writers have a term, 'silly season,' for the time period each year when drivers are looking for their next ride. If that's silly, then this will be bizarre in an "Elvis' Martian Love Child" nature.
"It's not an overstatement that James becomes the most consequential free agent in the history of American sports. James' body language, as his Cavaliers were eliminated by the Boston Celtics (disinterest? exasperation?), reinforces the impression he might be looking to move.
"Combine all that with this Internet-driven media age: ESPN.com seems to have 14 writers all churning out the same hurry-up-and-wait speculation six weeks prior to James' contract actually expiring. Add the Fanhouse-Yahoo-CBSSportsline crowd, plus 80,000 Twitter feeds, and this will get old long before it's technically new.
"Most anyone who mattered among NBA player-personnel executives was at the Chicago Sheraton Thursday and Friday for the combine. I ran into a longtime source in the hotel lobby and asked a simple, open-ended question: What happens this summer?
"'Anyone who claims to know,' the source replied, 'is a fool. Or a liar. Probably both.'"